scholarly journals Algorithm based smartphone apps to assess risk of skin cancer in adults: systematic review of diagnostic accuracy studies

BMJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. m127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karoline Freeman ◽  
Jacqueline Dinnes ◽  
Naomi Chuchu ◽  
Yemisi Takwoingi ◽  
Sue E Bayliss ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective To examine the validity and findings of studies that examine the accuracy of algorithm based smartphone applications (“apps”) to assess risk of skin cancer in suspicious skin lesions. Design Systematic review of diagnostic accuracy studies. Data sources Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, CPCI, Zetoc, Science Citation Index, and online trial registers (from database inception to 10 April 2019). Eligibility criteria for selecting studies Studies of any design that evaluated algorithm based smartphone apps to assess images of skin lesions suspicious for skin cancer. Reference standards included histological diagnosis or follow-up, and expert recommendation for further investigation or intervention. Two authors independently extracted data and assessed validity using QUADAS-2 (Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 tool). Estimates of sensitivity and specificity were reported for each app. Results Nine studies that evaluated six different identifiable smartphone apps were included. Six verified results by using histology or follow-up (n=725 lesions), and three verified results by using expert recommendations (n=407 lesions). Studies were small and of poor methodological quality, with selective recruitment, high rates of unevaluable images, and differential verification. Lesion selection and image acquisition were performed by clinicians rather than smartphone users. Two CE (Conformit Europenne) marked apps are available for download. No published peer reviewed study was found evaluating the TeleSkin skinScan app. SkinVision was evaluated in three studies (n=267, 66 malignant or premalignant lesions) and achieved a sensitivity of 80% (95% confidence interval 63% to 92%) and a specificity of 78% (67% to 87%) for the detection of malignant or premalignant lesions. Accuracy of the SkinVision app verified against expert recommendations was poor (three studies). Conclusions Current algorithm based smartphone apps cannot be relied on to detect all cases of melanoma or other skin cancers. Test performance is likely to be poorer than reported here when used in clinically relevant populations and by the intended users of the apps. The current regulatory process for awarding the CE marking for algorithm based apps does not provide adequate protection to the public. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD42016033595.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamidreza Sadeghsalehi ◽  
◽  
Parinaz Onikzeh ◽  
Afshin Heidari ◽  
Aida Kazemi ◽  
...  

Review question / Objective: The aim of this systematic review is to investigate applications of smartphone apps in assessment and monitoring of postoperative symptoms and patient functions after spine surgeries. Condition being studied: Some patients with spinal problems, such as Discopathy, need surgery. These patients need frequent follow-up and assessment of symptoms and function after surgery. Currently, the use of mobile applications is a new way to monitor and evaluate patients after spinal surgeries. Information sources: Following databases were searched until 2021-03-16: Pubmed, Scopus, Embase via Embase, Web of Science Core Collection, CINAHL via EBSCO, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials Via Ovid, ACM, Psycinfo.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. e046027
Author(s):  
Petr Domecky ◽  
Anna Rejman Patkova ◽  
Katerina Mala-Ladova ◽  
Josef Maly

IntroductionSurgical site infection (SSI) is a potential complication of surgical procedure. SSI after implant surgery is a disaster both for patients and surgeons. Although predictive tools for SSI are available, none of them estimate early infection based on inflammatory blood parameters. The inflammatory process can be measured using several parameters including interleukin-6, C reactive protein, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, white cell count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate or procalcitonin. This systematic review aims to determine whether inflammatory blood parameters could be used as significant predictive factors for SSI after primary hip or knee arthroplasty.Methods and analysisA systematic review of randomised controlled trials, cross-sectional studies, case–control studies and cohort studies, published in English, will be searched in the following electronic bibliographic databases: MEDLINE, Embase, PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and Web of Science. Studies performed in adult patients of all ages who underwent knee or hip arthroplasty, studies containing data on the risk/prognostic factors for preknee or postknee or hip arthroplasty SSI and studies with a minimum follow-up of 30 days after surgery will be included. A standardised form will be used to extract data from the included studies comprising study characteristics, participant characteristics, details of the intervention, study methodology and outcomes. Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy tool, second version, and Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies checklist will be used to assess risk of bias. Heterogeneity will be assessed using Cochran χ² statistic and I2 statistics where applicable. Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidance will be used to report findings.Ethics and disseminationNo ethics approval is required. The findings will be disseminated at national and international scientific sessions, also to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020147925.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 2473011420S0038
Author(s):  
Gregory F. Pereira ◽  
John Steele ◽  
Amanda N. Fletcher ◽  
Samuel B. Adams ◽  
Ryan B. Clement

Category: Ankle Introduction/Purpose: The term osteochondral lesion of the talus (OLT) refers to any pathology of the talar articular cartilage and corresponding subchondral bone. In general, OLTs can pose a formidable treatment challenge to the orthopaedic surgeon due to the poor intrinsic ability of cartilage to heal as well as the tenuous vascular supply to the talus. Although many treatment options exist, including microfracture, retrograde drilling, autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI), and osteochondral autograft transfer system (OATS) these options may be inadequate to treat large cartilage lesions. Osteochondral allografts have demonstrated promise as the primary treatment for OLTs with substantial cartilage and bone involvement. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review of outcomes after fresh osteochondral allograft transplantation for OLTs. Methods: PudMed, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, and Medline were searched using PRISMA guidelines. Studies that evaluated outcomes in adult patients after fresh osteochondral allograft transplantation for chondral defects of the talus were included. Operative results, according to standardized scoring systems, such as the AOFAS Ankle/Hindfoot scale and the Visual Analog Scale were compared across various studies. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using the Coleman methodology score. Results: There were a total of 12 eligible studies reporting on 191 patients with OLTs with an average follow-up of 56.8 months (range 6-240). The mean age was 37.5 (range 17-74) years and the overall graft survival rate was 86.6%. The AOFAS Ankle/Hindfoot score was obtained pre- and postoperatively in 6 of the 12 studies and had significant improvements in each (P<0.05). Similarly, the VAS pain score was evaluated in 5 of the 12 studies and showed significant decreases (P<0.05) from pre- to postoperatively with an aggregate mean preoperative VAS score of 7.3 and an aggregate postoperative value of 2.6. The reported short-term complication rate was 0%. The overall failure rate was 13.4% and 21.6% percent of patients had subsequent procedures. Conclusion: The treatment of osteochondral lesions of the talus remains a challenge to orthopaedic surgeons. From this systematic review, one can conclude that osteochondral allograft transplantation for osteochondral lesions of the talus results in predictably favorable outcomes with an impressive graft survival rate and high satisfaction rates at intermediate follow-up. [Table: see text]


CJEM ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (S1) ◽  
pp. S27-S27
Author(s):  
C. Leafloor ◽  
P. Jiho Hong ◽  
L. Sikora ◽  
J. Elliot ◽  
M. Mukarram ◽  
...  

Introduction: Approximately 50% of patients discharged from the Emergency Department (ED) after syncope have no cause found. Long-term outcomes among syncope patients are not well studied, to guide physicians regarding outpatient testing and follow-up. The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review for long-term (one year) outcomes among ED patients with syncope. We aim to use the results of this review to guide us in prospective analysis of one year outcomes with our large database of syncope patients. Methods: We searched Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Medline and Medline in Process, PubMed, Embase, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) from the inception to June, 2017. We included studies that reported long-term outcomes among adult ED patients (16 years or older) with syncope. We excluded studies on pediatric patients, and studies that included syncope mimickers: pre-syncope, seizure, intoxication, loss of consciousness after head trauma. We also excluded case reports, letters to the editor and review articles. Outcomes included death, syncope recurrence requiring hospitalization, arrhythmias and procedural interventions for arrhythmias. We selected articles based on title and abstract review during phase-1 and conducted full article review during phase-2. Meta-analysis was performed by pooling the outcomes using random effects model (RevMan v.5.3; Cochrane Collaboration). Results: Initial literature search generated 2094 articles after duplicate removal. 50 articles remained after phase-1 (=0.85) and 16 articles were included in the systematic review after phase-2 (=0.86). The 16 included studies enrolled a total of 44,755 patients. Pooled analysis at 1-year follow-up showed the following outcomes: 7% mortality; 14% recurrence of syncope requiring hospitalization; one study reported that 0.6% of patients had a pacemaker inserted; and two studies reported 0.8 11.5% of patients suffered new arrhythmias. Conclusion: An important proportion of ED patients with syncope suffer outcomes at 1-year. Appropriate follow-up is needed to prevent long-term adverse outcomes. Further prospective research to identify patients at risk for long-term important cardiac outcomes and death is needed.


Cosmetics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Perugini ◽  
Margherita Bonetti ◽  
Arianna Cecilia Cozzi ◽  
Giorgio Lorenzo Colombo

Background: Avoiding extended exposure to direct sunlight and the topical application of sunscreen when exposed are the main techniques used to protect the skin form sunburn, photoaging, and skin cancer risk (melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer). Preventive strategies could lead to a significant reduction of the excessive health system cost for the treatment of these conditions. Sunscreen employment and efficacy stay controversial despite decades of humane use with health benefits closely related. At the present, few studies still found a connection between the use of sunscreen and not significant long-term benefits from UV induced damages. Objectives: To assess the effects of sunscreens for preventing melanoma, non-melanoma skin cancer (basal or squamous carcinoma and melanoma) and precancerous skin lesions. Method: Published literature (1993–2017) was reviewed and eligible studies that reported the impact of sunscreen use in the prevention of melanoma, non-melanoma skin cancer, or precancerous skin lesion were selected. Result: Starting from 532 sources, a total of seven articles met the inclusion criteria and they have been subjected to a systematic review. All of the included studies suggest that sunscreen use is associated with a reduction in melanoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and precancerous skin lesions; however, the difficulties in evaluating the efficiency of sunscreen were pointed out. Conclusion: The review of the experimental evidence supports the topical application of sunscreen as an effective effort in preventing skin cancer and precancerous skin lesions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 247301141881442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan R. Emmons ◽  
Dominic S. Carreira

Background: Interposition arthroplasty of the first MTP joint has recently experienced renewed interest as a treatment for hallux rigidus. The purpose of this study was to systematically review the rapidly expanding literature on PRO following interposition arthroplasty of the first MTP joint. Methods: PubMed Central, Embase, and the Cochrane Central Register for Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) were searched. Inclusion criteria included length of time to follow-up, number of patients, outcome measure, and use of allogeneic or autogenous soft tissue or a synthetic matrix as interposition. Results: 20 studies were included in the review, comprising 498 patients and 539 feet with mean time to follow-up of 4.5 years. The most common substance used for interposition in the included studies was autogenous first MTPJ capsular tissue, a technique reported on in 12 (60.0%) of the included articles. In studies reporting preoperative and postoperative outcomes by way of a standardized outcome scoring system, mean group improvements exceed minimal clinically important differences in the majority of studies. Eighty-five percent of the studies included in this review were of Level IV quality evidence, and of this subset of studies, 70.6% were of a retrospective nature. Progression to further surgery was observed in 3.8% of toes. The most common complication reported was transfer metatarsalgia of 1 or more lesser toes, observed in up to 57.9% of patients in one study. Conclusion: Interposition arthroplasty appears to be a viable option for the treatment of moderate to severe hallux rigidus in patients looking to salvage motion through the first metatarsophalangeal joint. A wide array of autogenous, allogeneic, and synthetic implant materials have surfaced in recent years, but long-term follow-up and prospective, comparative study designs with low risk of bias are limited. Level of Evidence: Level IV, systematic review of Level III-IV studies


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